Meta Descriptions
A meta description is a short summary that explains what a page is about. This summary is no longer than a few sentences and it appears in Google search results for that page. By a developer installing meta descriptions on the back end of your website, they are helping Google and consumers know exactly what you intend each page for. This will help your site rank higher for the keywords you want to be known for if you have an experienced developer write meta descriptions that are on brand and tie into your keyword goals! See below an example of how a meta description comes up on a Google search.
Headings / Content
In addition to putting keywords (the things you want your business known for) in your back end meta descriptions, your keywords also need to be displayed within the headers of you pages. The header is the first text seen on your webpage. Each header should be unique and identify what is on that page. It should tie into your meta description as well as your keywords. You can be specific here and name locations you want to be known for as well in your headers to help Google further identify the areas you service. This best practice is a beneficial SEO tool for general informative sites and also essential for service-based industries and ecommerce. The below example shows that “About us” is the header to this page letting Google know this is the about us for the leadership of Obion County and would be a good choice to display if someone searched “info about leadership of Obion County”. To further help Google, an experienced developer will know to make sure the rest of the content on the web page is 250+ words (that’s the minimum paragraph requirement for Google) and make sure the paragraph does contain info “about” the leadership of Obion County. This ties the content (words) to the header that is tied to the meta description that is tied to the keywords. Everything is cohesive and working together towards the SEO goal of the site of ranking higher and having more visibility on Google making it easier for searchers to find the site and engage.
Site Speed Optimization
We can’t stop and won’t stop stressing the importance of Site Speed Optimization. Just because you think your site is “fast” doesn’t mean Google does. Google ranks sites based off their speed. It examines pages in very specific ways based off the content and image load times. Sometimes there can be unused java and things on the backend causing the site to be slower than it should be. If you haven’t had your site speed tested, we highly recommend this. Your site can be ran through a quick program and all the Google discrepancies are pointed out in a graded format for an experienced web developer to easily address. High quality sites are built with SIGNIFICANT ATTENTION put on site speed and optimized images from the beginning.
